OPEN: There is a story about a little girl who proudly wore a shiny cross on a chain around her neck. One day her preacher noticed how proud she seemed to be of her pretty cross, and said to her,
“Honey, don't you know that the cross Jesus died on wasn't beautiful like the one you're wearing? It was an ugly, terrible, wooden thing."
The little girl smiled and said: "Oh, I know that. But they told me in Sunday school that whatever Jesus touches, He changes.”
(From a sermon by Howard Strickland, "Another Testimony", Sermoncentral.com)
Whatever Jesus touches… He changes.
And that’s what our story today is all about.
Jesus touched Paul, and Paul was never the same again.
Now, before we get to our text for this morning, I want to introduce you to Saul.
Of course, those of you who know the Bible well, know that Saul was Paul’s name up until he became a Christian, and after his conversion he eventually became known exclusively by the name of Paul.
(http://www.ssjohnandSaul.org/img/SAUL/Saul%20map.png)
Saul was born a Jew in a city called Tarsus down on southern coast of what now call Turkey. Somewhere early in his life, his family moved to Jerusalem and while there Saul had the opportunity to study at the feet of a man named Gamaliel, one of greatest Jewish Rabbis of the day.
Saul was a man who took his faith seriously.
He later described himself this way:
“(I was) circumcised on the eighth day,
of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;
in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
as for zeal, persecuting the church;
as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Philippians 3:5-6
One day he might have grown up to be decent Jewish rabbi. Perhaps he'd have been even greater than Gamaliel himself … if it hadn’t been for Jesus.
Saul hung out with the Pharisees and the Pharisees despised Jesus.
They had nothing good to say about Christ.
And this distaste for Jesus was something Saul would have shared with Pharisees.
So when Jesus was arrested – Saul was probably in the crowd as they cried out:
CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!
(PAUSE)
But now Jesus … is dead.
And Saul’s thinking: Good riddance.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
(PAUSE)
But then there were these rumors that Jesus wasn't dead.
Rumors that He had risen from the dead and appeared to His followers.
And Peter and John - those ignorant fishermen from Galilee - they had been out preaching to crowds of people about this Jesus. They even have the audacity to stand before the Sanhedrin and defiantly refuse to cease their false teachings.
Saul is furious.
How dare these ignorant men challenge the Sanhedrin, the leaders of his people?
That would have been bad enough, but then, there was this fool of a man – this Stephen - who stood before the crowds and lectured them about their history as a people of God. And then this Stephen said that God didn’t need the Temple for worship in, and concluded by saying:
“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” Acts 7:51-53
When Saul and the other men in the crowd heard that “…they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.” Acts 7:54
Have you ever had anyone gnash their teeth at you?
I don’t have any idea how you could do that, but these men were obviously enraged.
But it was when Stephen said he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God that pushed them over the edge.
Acts 7:58 tells us that when Stephen said that “They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
Why would these men stone Stephen to death?
Because they believed he was introducing a NEW GOD.
Deuteronomy 13:6-10 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
The crowd believed Stephen was introducing a new God, and so they stoned him to death.
But WAS Stephen introducing a “new God”?
No, Jesus was the Messiah that had been prophesied long before.
And in Jeremiah 31:31-33 God said He was going to do something new:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
You see, Jesus was the one who was prophesied to bring in that New Covenant.
And Jesus established His authority to do that…
• By the many people he healed.
• By feeding 1000s with small amounts of food.
• By raising the dead.
• AND by rising from the dead Himself.
Jesus WAS NOT a new God. He was the God talked about all the way thru the Old Testament.
But the Saul and his friends didn’t buy into that.
Jesus – for them - was a heretic and that’s why they put him to death.
And when Stephen preached about Jesus, HE became a heretic, and so he had to die as well.
This incident was the turning point in Saul’s life.
From this point on Saul knew what his mission should be …
It would his goal, from this time on, to snuff out this heresy before it got out of control.
Later in the book of Acts Saul was on trial for professing Jesus is the Son of God & told the judge:
“On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.” Acts 26:10-11
And – of course – that was precisely what Saul was in the process of doing on road to Damascus.
Now, there are people /who believe that Saul was just a bitter, mean-spirited bigot
That’s possible, I suppose… but I doubt it.
First Jesus sought Saul out.
Jesus went looking for Saul to fulfill a specific mission.
I seriously doubt that Jesus would have wanted to use an unstable and irrational man for such a purpose.
And Paul didn’t take it on himself to attack Christianity.
He didn’t run down the street brandishing a knife and yelling curses at Christians.
We’re told at least a couple of times that he acted under the authority of religious rulers. He went to men of responsibility in Israel to get permission to do what he did, and when he arrested Christians, he brought them back to those authorities.
And Saul was not bigoted.
He was a man who was passionate in his faith.
Have you ever seen someone who was passionate about what they believed in?
Maybe someone during this election cycle who’ve been passionate about one of the people running for President? They’ve not been irrational or unbalanced or mean-spirited. But they have actively and powerfully spoken out for their candidate.
That’s the kind of passion that drove Saul in his mission.
He saw this new faith as being an attack on the God he served.
And he was NOT going to just look the other way while these “Christians” undermined the faith of his fathers.
Now, what I find interesting (about this story of Saul’s conversion) is that Jesus hadn’t done this before. I mean, Saul had been persecuting Christians for some time now. Why would Jesus wait until this specific moment to drop Saul in his tracks?
I think the answer to that question is found in Saul's retelling of this incident later in Acts.
“And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” Acts 26:14
Kick against the goads?
What’s that all about?
Well, an ox goad was a stick with a pointed piece of iron on its tip.
Farmers would use to prod the oxen to change directions when plowing.
Basically, the goad steered the ox it in the right direction.
(http://www.gotquestions.org/kick-against-the-pricks.html)
Now, what possible goads could Jesus have been talking about?
Well one of those was what Jesus promised in the book of John.
Jesus said: “when (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” John 16:8-11
In other words – part of the Spirit’s job is to confront us.
To get in our faces and convict us of our sins, and our need for righteousness and the fact that – there’s a judgment coming.
ILLUS: I recently saw a picture on Facebook that declared that the colors red, white and blue (I went over to the American flag on the stage) represent freedom… that is, they represent freedom up until the time when you see those particular colors of lights in your rear-view mirror (think about it).
When you red, blue and white lights in your rear-view mirror, they don’t represent freedom.
They represent impending judgment.
And that’s what the Spirit’s been doing to Saul.
The Spirit has been convicting him.
And I get the impression He’s been doing this to Saul for some time now.
The Spirit had been softening Saul up for Jesus.
he Spirit was working on Saul to get him to doubt his convictions and getting him to question he should be persecuting Christians.
But… how did the Spirit do this?
How could the God’s Spirit “soften” Saul up?
One way that comes to mind, is that - as Saul talked with those Christians who were facing imprisonment and even death - God made him realize that THEIR faith was real. And this observation of their faith (I suspect) shook Saul.
You remember the story of Saul and Silas being arrested in Philippi?
They’re severely beaten, put in shackles and locked away in a cell.
Now, how would you have felt to have been unfairly beaten by leaders in the community and then thrown into a horrid cell and placed in chains awaiting potential condemnation?
How would you have responded to that kind of treatment?
Well, how did Saul and Silas respond?
Well, let’s read about it:
“About midnight Saul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25
Now what prompted Saul to do that?
Why would he so calmly sing and pray in the midst of such injustice?
I think he’d seen other Christians do just that after he’d arrested, and beaten and imprisoned them. I believe he remembered how their behavior affected him when he was their jailor.
Now notice the effect of that behavior HAD on others.
It says “the other prisoners were listening to them.” (pause)
AND after God shook the jail with an earthquake the unlocks all the doors, the jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Saul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:29-30
Notice, the jailor didn’t go to anyone else’s cells.
He goes specifically to Paul and Silas’ cell.
Why?
Because he also had heard their prayers and singing.
And before that night was out… the jailor and his whole family were baptized into Christ.
ILLUS: An early leader in the church named Jerome noted:
“The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it.”
In other words in the days of the early church, people were won to Christ by the witness of Christians who were being persecuted. It was HOW these believers responded to mistreatment and abuse that shook people and converted them to Christ.
So, the Holy Spirit softened Saul up - and THEN Jesus came for a visit.
And when Jesus came for a visit Saul went to his knees.
Because when Jesus touched Saul, Jesus changed him.
From the day that Ananias baptized Saul for the forgiveness of his sins, Saul became a man on fire for Christ.
You couldn’t shut him up for nothing.
He was a driven man.
He was a changed man.
Eventually, even his name was changed … from Saul to Paul.
Ultimately, Paul wrote half of our New Testament.
The man who sought to destroy Christianity became its most powerful voice
The question for us this morning is this: why did Paul change?
Well, the simplest answer is: Jesus went looking for him.
Paul had the kind of passion that Jesus was looking for.
Granted, Paul’s passion was misplaced, but he was HONEST in what he did.
The thing was - Paul ultimately had to make a choice.
Even when Jesus confronted him he could have said “NO, that’s not how I was taught.”
He wasn’t raised to follow Jesus.
He could have said no… it wouldn’t have been very smart, but he could have.
And, you know, you’ll run into that kind of thinking once in a while.
You’ll show someone something from the Bible, and they’ll struggle with it.
Because that’s not how they were taught.
That’s now they were raised.
ILLUS: I was at a Revival some time back where the preacher told of a conversation he’d had with one woman. She was struggling with the idea that she needed to be baptized for the forgiveness of his sins so he turned to Mark 16:16 and asked her to read the verse to him.
In part, Mark 16:16 "He that believeth and is baptized will be saved…”
She took the Bible and confidently recited:
“He that believeth shall be saved and then baptized…”
(Was that what it said? Nooo)
He was a bit astounded but asked her to read it again.
“He that believeth shall be saved and then baptized…”
He couldn’t believe he was hearing this, but again he asked her to repeat it.
“He that believeth shall be saved and then baptized…”
“One more time,” he said.
“He that believeth…” and she stopped. “… and is baptized… shall be saved.”
Then she said “I’ve seen that before!”
Now, why hadn’t she seen that before?
Because that wasn’t how she was raised.
She wasn’t taught that verse, and she’d been taught an entirely different way to view baptism.
What’s interesting was the specific way in which Jesus said what He said about this topic.
But in spite of Jesus’ explicit statement, people will not only warp it the way this woman had, but others will warp it to say:
“He who is baptized will be saved… and THEN they’ll believe.”
Why would they read Scripture that way?
Because that was how they were taught.
There are people who do that sort of thing with all kinds of Scripture.
And they are passionate about what they believe.
BUT sooner or later they’ve got to make a choice.
They have to choose whether they will listen to those who have taught them in the past… or will they listen to Jesus?
It’s only when they start listening to Jesus that their lives begin to change.
Because whatever Jesus touches… He changes.
So Paul changed because Jesus sought him.
2ndly Paul changed because there was a Christian there to guide him.
Did you know that Paul wasn’t saved on the road to Damascus?
There are a lot of preachers who SAY that… but it’s not true.
If it were true, Ananias wouldn’t have told Paul:
“Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’ Acts 22:16
Can you be saved if your sins aren’t washed away?
Of course you can’t!
And yet that’s what Ananias said Saul needed to do.
That hadn’t been done on the road to Damascus.
Washing away of Saul’s sins only occurred when Ananias baptized him into Christ.
But there’s one more thing I want you see here.
Jesus COULD have saved Paul on the road to Damascus… but he didn’t.
He left that privilege to a mortal man named Ananias.
Now THIS Ananias isn’t mentioned anywhere else Scripture.
He wasn’t an Apostle.
As far as we know he wasn’t a great orator, or a church planter, and he didn’t write any books.
Essentially he wasn’t famous or important.
Ananias was just like you and me.
Let me let you in on a wonderful secret.
You might just get the opportunity to be involved in another person’s salvation.
God just might send someone your way that you can lead to Christ!!!
You don’t need a Bible college education, or teach Sunday School, or be someone important in the church. ll you gotta do is love Jesus and be willing to tell people how to become a Christian.
ILLUS: Years ago someone came up with a very simple way of learning how to lead someone to Christ. They called it: “The 5 Finger Exercise.”
(Holding up my index finger) This is finger #1. Hold up your index finger along with me and repeat after me: ‘Believe.’”
“He who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God shall be saved.”
(John 3:16)
(Holding up my index and middle finger) “Finger number two is ‘Repent’.
Say it with me "REPENT".
In order to be saved you need acknowledge that you are a sinner and you need to repent.
You need to be willing to turn away from sin.
(Acts 3:19)
So we have “Believe” and “Repent”, the next finger…
(Holding up the index, middle and then RING finger)
…is “Confess”
Say it with me "CONFESS".
What are confessing?
We are confessing that Jesus will not be the Lord of our lives. He’ll now own us and have the right to ask anything He desires of us.
(Romans 10:9)
So we have “Believe” and “Repent”, and “Confess”. The next finger…
(Holding up the index, middle ring… and now the LITTLE finger)
… is for “Baptism”.
Say it with me "BAPTISM"
This is where a person allows themselves to be buried in the waters of baptism and rises up a new creation of Christ.
(Roman 6:1-5)
We have “Believe” and “Repent”, and “Confess” and “Baptism. Lastly we have…
(Holding up all the fingers, and now the THUMB)
… “Living for Christ”
Say it with me "LIVING FOR CHRIST".
Becoming a Christian is not like buying fire insurance.
You don’t make just one commitment early in life and then walk away.
God calls us to live FOR Him for the rest of our lives.
(Mark 13:13)
When someone is ready to belong to Jesus – they’re not gonna argue with you.
All they’re gonna want to know is how they can belong to Christ.
They want to be touched by Jesus, and changed by Him.
CLOSE: A blind man once stood on a busy street corner reading aloud Acts 4 from a Braille Bible.
A man happened to be passing by and he topped at the edge of the crowd to listen.
At that very moment, the sightless man lost his place. While trying to find it, he kept repeating the last three words he had just read:
"No other name... No other name... No other name..."
Many smiled, but this man was shaken. He’d never heard Jesus talked about like that before. In that one small phrase Jesus touched him and changed him.
For, what Jesus touches…He changes.
INVITATION
